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enCopyright (c) 2002-2015 Public AddressIT'S ALIVEhttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/its-alive/
Fri, 15 May 2015 09:34:00 +1200http://publicaddress.net/cracker/its-alive/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieFor the past few years, actually, the whole decade I’ve been working in television, the narrative has been the same – traditional media is fucked. The story has taken different forms over the years. There’s been seemingly continuous restructuring at organisations like TVNZ and the New Zealand Herald (“restructuring” must be the greatest euphemism there is in the media world). We’ve had the death of serious current affairs show, the rise and fall of TVNZ 7, funding cuts, mergers and acquisitions… I’m not telling you anything new here. To survive in this landscape has made me increasingly feel like a cockroach…]]>Absolute Genius: The New Paul Henry Showhttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/absolute-genius-the-new-paul-henry-show/
Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:35:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/absolute-genius-the-new-paul-henry-show/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieFor the past couple of years, as part of my teaching at AUT, I’ve given a lecture called “Writing for Television News”. It was adapted a few years ago from notes from a lecture that I believe Mike McRoberts had given prior to that. Philip Sherry probably wrote the damn thing 40 years ago, and like whatever the non-racist name for Chinese Whispers is these days, it probably bears no resemblance to whatever it was when it started.The point is, writing for television is quite different than writing for radio. The former already has pictures, it doesn’t need them…]]>New Year, New Post.http://publicaddress.net/cracker/new-year-new-post/
Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:07:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/new-year-new-post/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieI was a bit disappointed to realise, on December 30th, that 2014 would pass without me finishing a single book. I picked up a copy of Steve Braunias’ election collection, Mad Men, but even its slender spine defied my belated efforts. Likewise, I’d barely written a word all year. A few blog entries (I’ve never been prolific, for sure, but that’s a new low even for me), no magazine articles or columns or anything. For some reason, unable to read or write. Practically, if not literally, illiterate. December 31st being a traditional time for setting unrealistic expectations for the year…]]>The Colorado Experimenthttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/the-colorado-experiment/
Tue, 29 Apr 2014 10:49:00 +1200http://publicaddress.net/cracker/the-colorado-experiment/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieI went to Denver, Colorado last week. It’s part of a project I can’t really talk about at the moment, but it’s fair to assume my visit – coinciding with the 420 Rally on 4/20 – had something to do with cannabis.Coming home, into the midst of a nationwide debate over the status of legal highs, simply reinforced what I’d felt for a long time: that by refusing to even consider the legalisation of cannabis, we’ve ended up with something far worse.I’m not much of a pot smoker, and nor were the crew I travelled with. Many of my friends…]]>Bullyhttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/bully/
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 23:30:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/bully/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieI’d been thinking about writing this post last week, before the news of Charlotte Dawson’s death. In some ways the post is now even more relevant, but at the same time it’s become far more complex, trying to separate the one small point I was going to make away from the myriad issues of celebrity, depression, cyber-bullying and more.My initial post was triggered by a poll I saw on nzherald.co.nz. It seemed innocuous enough at first, it seemed to blend with the other ‘Entertainment’ stories on the page. But as I read, re-read, and re-considered it, the more I…]]>How Media Made me a Bad Person.http://publicaddress.net/cracker/how-media-made-me-a-bad-person/
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:13:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/how-media-made-me-a-bad-person/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieWorking in media does bad things to people. It’s probably not surprising, it can be a brutal industry. Not only are you sometimes asked to do things no decent human should ever have to do – I’ve alluded to some of these before, and one day will say more, perhaps in the guise of fiction – but all the while, your entire output is being watched and judged. Every business has its competitors, but only in media – and especially in television – is every day’s efforts rated, and held up against the competition for comparison. Even sportspeople usually only play once a week,…]]>Stoned in Chargehttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/stoned-in-charge/
Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:07:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/stoned-in-charge/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieLike Russell, I will be attending the Drug Foundation's 2013 International Drug Policy Symposium - "Through the Maze: Cannabis and Health", not least of all because I'm MCing the three-day event. It begins on Wednesday, if this is the first you're hearing about it and really need to be there, I suggest you click the link above and get yourself sorted.In August I travelled to Queensland for a conference all about drugs and traffic safety, partly as research for a documentary, but also so I could write this groovy little piece for the Drug Foundation's magazine "Substance Matters". Have…]]>Lundy and Me.http://publicaddress.net/cracker/lundy-and-me/
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:48:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/lundy-and-me/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieSome years ago, probably close to a decade now, I was working as a producer on Sunday. Somehow, a story ended up on my desk – the story that Mark Lundy was innocent.The evidence was compelling. Almost nothing in the Crown case added up, especially as presented by Mark Lundy’s answer to Joe Karam – although perhaps that’s an unfair comparison to make about the quietly personable Geoff Levick – who's spent far too many hours delving through the minutiae of what did or didn’t happen that night in Palmerston North.There is so much that doesn’t make sense about the police…]]>We Haz Talent?http://publicaddress.net/cracker/we-haz-talent/
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:43:00 +1300http://publicaddress.net/cracker/we-haz-talent/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieI probably don’t need to read anything more about Lorde, ever.Not for any negative reason – I still haven’t listened to the whole EP, let alone the new album, pretty much only ‘Royals’ so I don't have much of a musical opinion either way – it’s just, to quote an old Irish God of Rock, “there’s been a lot of talk about this song, maybe, maybe too much talk.” With a flurry of recent articles, the good, the bad and the downright bizarre, I find myself in the position of knowing more about Lorde than I do about my own long-standing…]]>Johnny Foreigner & the Auckland Property Markethttp://publicaddress.net/cracker/johnny-foreigner-the-auckland-property-market/
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:23:00 +1200http://publicaddress.net/cracker/johnny-foreigner-the-auckland-property-market/Damian ChristieDamian ChristieA few weeks ago, in the make-up room above the pub for Back Benches, I asked each of the three MPs there for the show – Louise Upston (Nat), Jacinda Ardern (Lab) and Holly Walker (Green) – what they thought of restricting the sale of residential property to foreign investors.I’m not claiming any kind of credit – it’s hardly an original idea, and it’s already Green policy – but the point is that it’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for a month or so, trying to find the upside, the downside, and most importantly, whether it would have any impact on the…]]>